Proof of the Genuineness of The Scriptures

The manuscripts (MSS) of scripture are innumerable. They belong to all ages and some are very ancient. They have been kept for centuries in distant parts of the world, under the custody of opposing sects and in circumstances that made extensive or important alterations impossible.

The possessors of the MSS deemed them of the highest value, and professed to live under the influence of the truths contained in them. Copyists preserved them with the utmost reverence, counting every letter of every book and registering every tittle of the law. How remarkable, how decisive as an evidence of Divine care that while all the libraries of Europe and the World containing copies of the Sacred Scriptures have been examined, all ancient versions compared, the MSS of all countries from the 3rd to the 16th century collated, the commentaries of the Fathers again and again investigated, nothing has been discovered, not even a single general reading, which can set aside an important passage hitherto received as genuine.

This positive conclusion, that our Bible does not essentially differ from the Bible of the Primitive Church, is indeed ample recompense for all the labour and time which has been devoted to these pursuits.